Egypt's top courts suspend work in protest at Mursi

Reuters Staff

2 Min Read

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt’s Cassation Court and the country’s most important appeals court said on Wednesday they would suspend their work pending a ruling on the constitutionality of President Mohamed Mursi’s decree granting him immunity from judicial review.

“The Cassation Court will suspend its work starting today,” the court’s vice chairman, Abdel Nasser Abu al-Wafa, said after a meeting of the court’s top officials.

Khaled Abdellah, a judge in the Cairo and Giza Appeals Court, said after a similar meeting that his court would also suspend its work “except in cases related to corruption and personal laws”.

There were chaotic scenes in both meetings as judges, divided over the Constitutional Court’s latest statement, argued over what to do.

A spokesman for the Supreme Constitutional Court, which declared the Islamist-led parliament void earlier this year, said on Wednesday that it felt under attack by the president.

“We did not find the Constitutional Court’s statement of simply condemning President Mursi’s decree enough,” Abu al-Wafa told Reuters after the meeting. “We are deciding on the next step after suspending work.”

Other regional appeals courts across Egypt had already suspended their work.